Opinion | Guest Essay

By Evan39, Former Night Manager, $afeway LLP

May 3, 2025

Liberal Again, and Late Again

I wore a “Love Is Love” pin to an office offsite in 2017.

No one noticed.

The woman next to me was wearing a shirt that said, “Empathy Is Punk.” Her name was Jade. She drank out of a Stanley thermos and accused me of “being pragmatic in a fascist way.”

I nodded.

I’ve been nodding ever since.

Now I’m told being “lib” is cool again.

Not in the earnest way — not in the way of Pete Buttigieg town halls or equity PowerPoints.

But in the way of performative rebellion.

Of Chads in mesh tanks whispering that they “support trans rights” between reps.

Of forty-year-old gay men like me desperately recalibrating our feed’s tone from “Respect my marriage” to “Drag brunch is praxis.”

I once believed in policy.

Now I rehearse TikTok slang in the mirror like a second language.

“Slay.”

“Based.”

“Valid.”

I say them at the wrong times.

People wince.

I offer free HR templates as apology.

I saw a man at my gym wearing a Ukrainian flag hat and quoting Rachel Maddow with erotic confidence.

He had a nose ring and a Roth IRA.

I followed him into the sauna.

He talked about bodily autonomy and Leonard Cohen.

I got a nosebleed.

There was a time when “liberal” meant NPR tote bags, David Sedaris readings, and being quietly correct.

Now it means:

Polyamorous software engineers

Vegan CrossFit cults

Misinformation podcasts hosted by bisexuals with mustaches

Sometimes I miss Trump.

Not politically.

But because it was easier to be good when there was a villain.

Now, the vibe is diffuse, ironic, scented like Palo Santo.

It’s not about truth.

It’s about the performance of vibe-adjusted dissent.

I’m too old to keep up.

But too scared to stop pretending.

I still vote blue.

But I do it at 7:30 a.m. in a fleece vest.

Then I go home and shred old DEI flyers out of shame and nostalgia.

About the Author

Evan39 is the author of The Shame Spiral Is a Circle: Notes from a Liberal Who Missed Every Cultural Shift by Six Months and Everything Is Fine (Until You Realize You’re the Old Gay Now).

He once tried to organize a voter registration drive at Equinox. He was escorted out.

Read more at www.nytimes.com/liberalism-as-fashion-cycle

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719841&forum_id=2#48901012)

touch grass. in the 20-35 range it's becoming cool again.

being cool to be a social conservative was just a blip

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719841&forum_id=2#48900329)

Anyone else want to frantically defend Joe Rogan?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719841&forum_id=2#48901187)

Looks like he's #1 in USA, Canada, UK, and Australia.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719841&forum_id=2#48901204)

During the pandemic all these production companies thought podcasting would be the future and signed all these up and coming randos and then nobody tuned in. So they were like ah fuck it. Rogan is the only podcast that puts up enormous numbers. You don't have to like him but millions of people do.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719841&forum_id=2#48901217)

Author: turbofag

You do understand that

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Yes, that's actually how "turbofag" begins his sentences.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5719841&forum_id=2#48901237)